📋 Before You Start
At Glitch Academy, we think about learning to build software the way families used to build Pinewood Derby cars and model rockets. You start with a kit. You build something real. You launch it — and you understand how it works.
This is the Model Rocket module. If a Pinewood Derby car is carving a block of wood into something that rolls — learning the basics by hand, from raw materials — then a model rocket is the next level. You're working with a real kit now: pre-shaped fins, a body tube, a nose cone. Your job is to assemble them, customize them, and launch.
In software terms, that kit is called a framework. Instead of writing every line of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript from scratch, you'll use professional tools that handle the wiring so you can focus on building something bigger. You'll still write real code. You'll still understand every piece. But the framework gives you structure, speed, and power that raw HTML can't.
By the end of this module, you'll have a multi-page website — built with real tools, deployed to the real internet, at a URL anyone in the world can visit. You'll understand how it works, and you'll have built it yourself.
This module introduces real professional tools — the same ones used by working developers. It's designed for a parent and kid to work through together. Your job: read along, ask questions, and make sure your kid can explain what's happening at each step. If something feels confusing, slow down. There's no clock.
The tools we're using today
- SvelteKit — a framework for building websites (the model rocket kit)
- Cloudflare — a service that puts your website on the internet (the launch pad)
- Wrangler — a command-line tool that talks to Cloudflare for you (mission control)
What you should already know
This module assumes you're comfortable with basic HTML, CSS, and JavaScript — you know what a tag is, you've written some styles, and you've seen how a script can make a page interactive. If you've been through our Pinewood Derby module, you're all set. If you're coming in with some coding experience from Scratch, a bootcamp, or just tinkering on your own, that works too.
If terms like <div>, class, and function feel totally foreign, start with the basics first. This module moves fast, and it's more fun when you're building on a foundation you understand.
Let's build.